Centenary Fandango for the CBSO

Record Company EMI celebrated its first hundred years with a special centenary concert given by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on 5 July. The Orchestra's horn section opened the programme with the world premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage's "Four Horned Fandango". The composer wrote the work especially for the section (Claire Briggs, Peter Currie, Mark Phillips and Peter Dyson), after hearing them perform Schumann's 'Konzertstuck' in 1995.

Pyatt's Rocket

David Pyatt's recording of the Mozart Concertos got off to a flying start, going straight into the U.K. classical artists' chart in the first week of its release, and with David doing more than a dozen radio interviews in the first couple of weeks.

Michael Thompson recently premiered Glen Morgan's new horn concerto, Concerto for a Libran, at St. James's Church, Piccadilly, London. Glen Morgan was previously a horn player with the Kansas City Philharmonic Orchestra.

Outright success in the Audi Junior Musician competition has always been elusive for brass players, although horn player, Neil Shewan was arguably the 'star' of the 1994 final. The age limit of 15 has tended to favour string and piano players.

This year that all changes. There will be four separate finals, including one for brass players. The first in each of these will be able to call themselves winners in their own right, each receiving a prize of GBP1000.

They will also perform in a Winners' Concerto Final at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

It has been decided to repair the horn which belonged to Bob McCreath who was tragically killed in an accident just over a year ago.

The horn in question is an Alexander Jubilee model. According to former colleague Mark Smith "it is in an appalling condition. It is difficult to fathom how Bob managed to play it so well."

The bell is quite badly creased and cracked in places, but Bob's parents would prefer not to replace it as they feel that it would no longer be Bob's horn. It does, though, need a thorough overhaul and relacquering.

Bob's parents would like to have the horn at home, inviting visiting players who were Bob's friends to use it during their stays in Glasgow. They keep an open invitation to visiting players who knew Bob to stay with them when in the city.